


Saving Your Work

by DigiKate813



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Family Fluff, Gen, Post-Weirdmageddon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-15 08:41:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16930053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DigiKate813/pseuds/DigiKate813
Summary: My first fic originally published on Tumblr in April 2016.Ford finds out what happened to his Journals in the wake of Weirdmageddon.





	Saving Your Work

Dipper led his Great Uncle Ford back to where they were separated after Ford was captured by Bill on the first day of Weirdmageddon. But now that the chaos had ended and everything was back to normal, he thought maybe what Bill did to his Great Uncle’s journals had been reversed, too.

When they got there, Dipper didn’t see anything right away. Then he noticed the one surviving page from the journal he had kept for most of the summer. Bill’s page. Half burned and barely legible. Ford was following slowly behind him and caught up to Dipper kneeling down to pick up the page, slightly buried in the dirt.

“Did you find them, Dipper?” Ford asked from behind him.

Dipper looked up at Ford with such a painful expression, then slowly stood up to hand him the last page of the journal.

“I’m so sorry, Great Uncle Ford.” Dipper said with a choke in his throat as Ford gently took the page out of his hand. Ford stayed silent for a minute. He shuddered slightly at having to see the face of that demonic dorito again. Even if it was just in a simple drawing.

It wasn’t until he had thumbed the crisp edges of the page for a few seconds that he realized how sorry Dipper felt. How much regret was on his face for, what he can only presume, was not stopping the journals from being destroyed.

Ford knelt down to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You have nothing to be sorry about, Dipper. There was nothing you could have done.” He tried to be as assuring to his great nephew as he possibly could.

“But all of your research! All of that amazing work you did is.... gone.” Dipper was a little quieter during that last part. Almost like he was trying to stop himself from saying it. His uncle probably felt bad enough about what happened. He probably didn’t need to be reminded.

“Yes, well....... We could have lost a lot more over the past few days then some silly old books” Ford smiled and patted his nephew on the shoulder before standing back up. “Now, what do you say we head back to the shack?”

“All right”

Dipper started walking back down the road to the shack. Ford started to follow but stopped abruptly. He looked at the page again. Held it as firmly in his hand as he could without ripping it. 

Even if it was the last page he could’ve possibly wanted to keep, it was the only thing that remained of all of his research in Gravity Falls. Sure, there were parts in there that could bring about the end of the world, but for the most part, it was field research and discoveries that he was proud of.

Even though he meant what he said to Dipper. That he could have lost a lot more (and almost did), he still couldn’t help being upset at losing everything he’d worked on. But he certainly wasn’t going to let his family know about that. He shoved the thought in the back of his mind and went to catch up with Dipper before he noticed he was behind.  
_____________________

They made it back to the shack to find Mabel with a box filled with probably every multi colored thing she could find in the shack, which was still being repaired, but it was going much quicker then they had expected. Ford probably shouldn’t have been surprised. That wasn’t the only thing that had been repaired surprisingly quickly.

As if on cue, Stan walks out of the living room with another box.

“All right, Mabel. This was all the party supplies i could find that wasn’t covered in zombie remains.” Stan put the box down as she quickly rifled through it.

Mabel groaned slightly after she had quickly gone through the box “Are you sure this is all there is?”

“Pretty sure”

Mabel looked down the box and hummed thoughtfully “Well, I think I can work with it. I am a master party planner after all!” she said proudly as she puffed out her chest. Stan chuckled as Mable wrapped her arms around his legs. “Thanks, Grunkle Stan.”

Stan laid a hand on her head” Heh heh. Sure thing pumpkin.” 

“Stanley?” Ford asked rather abruptly. Startling both Mable and Stan. “Is everything alright here.”

“Yeah. Everything’s good.” replied Stan.

“Really?” Ford said more seriously this time. Stan had been through a lot in the past few days, and while he seemed to have fully recovered from the effects of the memory gun, he didn't want Stan straining himself.

“Really” Stan said as calmly and assuringly as possible. Which made Ford feel significantly better.

“Hey Dipper! You want to help me set up for our superawesometacular birthday party?!” Mabel asked with such high enthusiasm. Even by her standards.

“Sure.” he replied as Mabel pushed both boxes in front of him.

“Where did you two run off to anyway?” Stan asked.

Dipper looked up from the boxes and started to explain “Well, I was taking Great Uncle Ford to-” 

“We were just checking to see how the rest of the town was doing.” Ford quickly interrupted him. 

Stan was glancing towards Ford’s left hand where he was still holding the burnt page. “What’cha got there?” Stan asked.

“Ah, nothing!” Ford got flustered and quickly stuffed the page in his pocket. He really didn’t want to talk about what happened to the journals with Stan, and he really didn’t want him to see that page. “Mind your own business, Stanley.” he said probably a bit harsher then he should have. 

Stan raised his hands up. “All right. All right.” he said in a defeated tone. When Ford started to walk past him, Stan bumped into his brother and used his pick pocketing skills to grab the page. “Lemme see!”

“Stanley! Give that back!” Ford demanded as he tries to get the page back. But Stan was able to keep him at arms length while he looked at it. 

“Hey wait.” Stan said as he stopped pushing Ford away and lowered his arm. “I recognize this. This was from one of your journals. Eugh! I think you drew Bill creepier then he actually was.” Stan remarked. Ford was able to grab the page out of Stan’s hand and this time put it in his inner coat pocket. “What the heck happened to it? It looks like it was almost served at a summer end barbecue.”

“Bill burned the journals right after Ford was captured.” Dipper managed to explain before Ford could stop him. Stan was surprised to hear this and looked at his brother. His eyes were shut tight as Dipper finished explaining. Trying to hide any emotion from his face. He was really bad at it.

“That creep destroyed all of them?” he asked Dipper who sadly nodded. He turned to Ford who was still hunched over with his fists clenched. Stan realized all the work that went into those, and while he gets why Ford doesn’t want to feel bad about it, he clearly does. Stan had to say something. “Ford, I am so sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter!” Ford finally shouted. “There’s no point in dwelling on it. They’re gone.” He loosened up a bit when he said that, but still, it almost looked like it hurt Ford to say that last part, but he continued anyway. “It’s not like I kept backups of my notes.”

Stan did feel bad for his brother, but before he could try to comfort him again, something about what Ford said reminded him of something very important. Something that may just cheer him up. “Wait.”

Ford and Dipper turned to Stan when he said that. He stood there for a second with a big grin slowly forming on his face, then he kept going in a very excited way. “Wait right here. I’ll be right back.” Stan then ran up the stairs as quickly as any of them have ever seen him.

Ford tried to stop him. “Stanley? Stanley! Where are you going?” But he didn’t get a response. So he just ran up after him. Dipper decided to follow him while Mabel waited downstairs. 

When Ford almost reached the top, one of the steps gave out under his foot. Luckily, he was able to grab onto the rail to balance himself. When he noticed Dipper behind him, he lifted him over the broken step. “Mabel! Tell Soos the stairs need to be repaired! Again.”

“Okay Grunkle Ford!”

Ford jumped over the broken step and he and Dipper continued their pursuit of his brother. When they finally caught up with Stan, he was rummaging through the cluttered mess he called his bedroom. Stan was muttering to himself. “Come on. Come on. It’s got to be around here somewhere” 

“Yeesh.” Ford muttered through his teeth. “Looks like some of the rooms still haven’t been tended to”

“No. It’s, always looked like that” Dipper replied in a deadpan tone.

Ford started to question his brother with the last of his patience.”Stanley. What are you even doing up he-”

Before he could finish his question, Stan held out a folder filled with paper.

“What do you think of this?” Stan said with that big grin that meant he knew something Ford didn’t. He hated that grin.

Ford opened the folder and began to look through the pages. He didn’t say anything, but his eyes widened as he kept flipping through the pages faster and faster. About a third of the way through, his silence broke.

“These are copies of the pages in my journals.” Ford said so shocked, it was almost breathless. “I can’t believe you have copies of all of them.” 

“Well, not all of them. Unfortunately I never copied Journal #1. It never left the basement the whole time I had it. I managed to get the other two from Dipper and that punk Gideon, but I made copies just in case they came looking for them. I mean, they’re not perfect. They don’t include the invisible ink-”

Ford interrupted “Regardless, this is more then I ever expected to see again”

It wasn’t until then that Stan and Dipper realized that Ford had been pulling out some pages from the pile and separating them from the folder while Stan was explaining. By the time they realized, he was finished, and grabbed a couple of things on the table next to him, but they didn’t notice what.

“Great Uncle Ford, what are you doing?” Dipper asked

Ford turned to him.“You’ll see soon enough, my boy.”  
______________________

Ford ran out of the room and downstairs. Stan and Dipper followed him, but once they reached the stairs, Dipper grabbed Stan to stop him from tripping on the broken step. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Mabel asked what they were doing, and followed them outside. They finally caught up with Ford who was standing in a familiar spot.

“What’re you doing by the Bottomless Pit, Grunkle Ford?” Mabel asked.

Dipper chimed in.“Yeah. And why did you pull those journal pages from the others?”

“These are all of the pages that refer to the portal. It’s mechanics. It’s conception, and any positive mentions of the creature who tricked me into building it.”

Stan was starting to put the pieces together. “Wait. You’re not gonna do what I think you’re gonna do, are you?”

Ford pulled a paper clip out of his pocket and bonded the pages together, so none would flutter away. Then, as he reached into his pocket again,

“You had the right idea Stan.”

He pulls out a lighter.

“But wait! The bottomless pit isn’t actually bottomless.” Dipper interrupted.

Now it was Mabel’s turn to chime in.“Yeah. The three of us and Soos fell in a while ago, and the pit just spit us out like bad Summerween candy.”

“While it may not exactly be bottomless, it will serve a purpose here. You see....” Ford began to explain, but then he processed what the kids had said. “Wait. You FELL into the bottomless pit?! How did that even happen?!!”

Dipper and Mabel looked over at Stan. Ford followed their gaze with his arms crossed and an accusing look on his face.

“ Uh...... Oh geez. You know, I can’t quite seem to remember that. Ah, guess everything isn’t quite back yet, so I can’t be blamed for something I may or may not have done.” Stan said trying to weasel his way out of this.

Ford hit him in the arm with his elbow. “Nice try, ya knucklehead” Then he looked down into the pit and continued. “Anyway, the pit does release organic matter, but if you drop an inanimate object in there, I can guarantee you will never see it again. Which is exactly what needs to happen to these.”

Ford lit the lighter and was about to bring it close to the portal pages. Suddenly, Stan grabbed his arm before they made contact. Ford looked up and saw Stan’s furrowed brows and concerned frown.

“You sure about this?” Stan asked in a serious yet concerned tone.

Ford was surprised at the question and looked down at the pages in his left hand. He stared at one third of the plan for the portal, and remembered when he drew it. When it wasn’t his hand guiding the pen, but a vicious demon claiming to be a muse whispering in his ear.

He remembered how proud he first was of the plan. How accomplished he felt when he and Fiddleford finally completed constructing it. But he also remembered how utterly betrayed and ashamed he was when he found out someone he thought was his partner and friend was only using him for such a horrifying purpose. Something he thought he tried everything within his power to prevent. But he didn’t.

If he had just destroyed the plans for the portal all those years ago, maybe none of the disasters that had occurred over the past few days would have ever happened. Even if Bill was gone, he wasn’t willing to let that happen again, and the only way to do that, was to prevent that terrible device from ever being built again.

Stan still had a firm grasp on his arm, but Ford had made up his mind. He lowered the pages close to the lighter and set the corner on fire. Stan looked surprised, but slowly let go of his arm. The kids each gasped as Ford held the burning pages at a safe distance. 

With a loud grunt, Ford tossed the half burned pages into the bottomless pit. The light of the flames quickly disappeared into the darkness. Never to be seen again.

“Goodbye forever!” Mabel shouted with her fists pumped high in the air.

Dipper looked up at his uncle. “Great Uncle Ford? Are you okay?”

Stan looked over at his brother expecting him to be heartbroken, but instead, he was smiling. It was kind of a sad smile, but a smile nonetheless. Ford looked down at Dipper and gave Dipper a pat on the head, which washed away Dipper’s concern. Then Ford walked away without saying a word. 

Stan tried to catch up to his brother and managed to before he reached the entrance to the shack. “Hey!” Ford turned around.

Stan stood there for a second. Then he found the right words. “I’m proud of you. I’m sure that couldn’t have been easy.”

Ford sighed “Well. It was a lot easier then it would have been a week ago. Still,” He pulled out the folder with most of his old research copied inside “I am incredibly grateful for this Stanley. It’s nice to know that at least some of my work is still around. These will certainly come in handy for my next project.”

Stan was surprised to hear his brother say that. He figured he was done with all this science and magic stuff after everything that’s happened. Still, he also figured it is something Ford loves, and he’s sure he’ll be more careful about his work now. “Oh yeah? What kind of nerdy experiment are you planning now?”

Ford paused for a second. “I’ll, um- I’ll let you know tomorrow.” He put the folder safely back in his coat pocket. “In the meantime, I believe you and Mabel were preparing for tomorrow’s big festivities.”

Mabel joined in to answer Ford’s question. “Yeah! But we ran out of supplies. Could we go into town and get some more?”

Stan looked over to her and Dipper together.“Sure thing. Who want to abuse our power as town heroes to get free stuff?!” 

Dipper and Mabel both cheered, while Ford simply shook his head and sighed.

They all headed over to the Diablo, and after Dipper and Mabel jumped in, Stan realized that there was a small gap left in his recovering memory, but unfortunately a very important one right now.

Stan turned to his brother “Do you know how to drive a car?”

Ford was about to say “Of course”, but then remembered that he hasn’t driven a car since he got back, and any vehicles he’s driven in a different dimension were far too advanced compared to a car. It had been so long.

“No. Do you?”

“Feel brave?” Stan said with a grin on his face and a daring look in his eye.

Ford returned the look. “Let’s go for it!” 

They ran over to the car and figured between the two of them, they can get on the road. How hard could it be?


End file.
